Jasmine sat glumly on the hard plastic bench which was the sole article of furniture in the little room Strole's men had turned into an improvised cell. There was nothing to do but watch the sky grow steadily darker through the securely locked window and shift constantly in search of a comfortable position.
Eventually she heard something. A voice raised in anger, the words indistinguishable at first, then becoming clear as the sound came nearer.
"... the Galactic Tribunal of Sentient Lifeforms' Rights, the Interplanetary Treaty on Detention of Minors, the Sirius Convention on Minimum Legal Representation, the Multidenominational Campaign for Universal Justice of which I happen to be a founder member, the..."
The furious, familiar tone burst in on Jasmine as the door slid open and two flustered, panicky-looking guards stumbled in backwards, hotly pursued by the fiery-eyed Doctor, shouting random phrases of interstellar law at them without so much as a pause for breath. He spotted her, and his voice instantly dropped to its normal volume.
"Ah, there you are." He turned back to the guards. "OUT!" he bellowed. They fled, and the door hissed shut behind them.
Looking enervated by the exercise, the Doctor thrust his hands deep into his pockets and looked down at her with a mock frown.
"Jasmine, what have you doing? I've just had to be very rude to those two men who only doing their jobs."
"How did you find me here?" she asked, breathless with relief at seeing him.
"Oh, it's no secret, the whole base is talking about it." He illustrated this concept with a wave of his hand in the general direction of the window. "I suspect it's the only interesting thing that's ever happened here. Apparently you broke into one of the secure labs and started messing with the equipment. Now, I know I said to keep your eyes open but..."
"I know what Strole's up to."
If she had been in a calmer frame of mind she would have taken satisfaction from his nonplussed expression.
"Do you?"
"Yes. They're not just digging up old machinery from an abandoned alien city. Some of the aliens are still alive in there, but they won't tell him how any of it works and they can't defend themselves and he's torturing them. He killed one of them while I was watching."
The Doctor's face grew expressionless while he listened, and he turned slowly to drop down onto the bench next to her. He rested his head back against the wall.
"Charming," he muttered.
"We'll help them, won't we? I sort of promised."
This broke his mood. He couldn't stifle a huff of laughter.
"Did you? Well, I suppose we'd better help them, then." He stroked his chin for a moment in thought. "These aliens. Did they say what they were called?"
"Um, no. Sorry, I didn't think to ask."
"Mm. Well, what did they look like?"
"Well..." Jasmine paused for thought and looked away, picturing the hideous but gentle creatures in her mind's eye to make this as accurate as possible. "They were green. Sort of soft, shapeless, lumpy things about a foot and a half across. They couldn't move about, or pick anything up, they just had lots of little thin yellow tentacles that didn't seem to be useful for anything. And they only had one eye. A big, white, round one."
There was silence. When Jasmine looked round at the Doctor to prompt him for a response, she was taken aback by what she saw. He stared at her, his mouth gaping half open, the flesh of his face drained to a corpselike pallor. It took her a moment to realise that this was the face of a horrorstruck, frightened man.
Eventually she heard something. A voice raised in anger, the words indistinguishable at first, then becoming clear as the sound came nearer.
"... the Galactic Tribunal of Sentient Lifeforms' Rights, the Interplanetary Treaty on Detention of Minors, the Sirius Convention on Minimum Legal Representation, the Multidenominational Campaign for Universal Justice of which I happen to be a founder member, the..."
The furious, familiar tone burst in on Jasmine as the door slid open and two flustered, panicky-looking guards stumbled in backwards, hotly pursued by the fiery-eyed Doctor, shouting random phrases of interstellar law at them without so much as a pause for breath. He spotted her, and his voice instantly dropped to its normal volume.
"Ah, there you are." He turned back to the guards. "OUT!" he bellowed. They fled, and the door hissed shut behind them.
Looking enervated by the exercise, the Doctor thrust his hands deep into his pockets and looked down at her with a mock frown.
"Jasmine, what have you doing? I've just had to be very rude to those two men who only doing their jobs."
"How did you find me here?" she asked, breathless with relief at seeing him.
"Oh, it's no secret, the whole base is talking about it." He illustrated this concept with a wave of his hand in the general direction of the window. "I suspect it's the only interesting thing that's ever happened here. Apparently you broke into one of the secure labs and started messing with the equipment. Now, I know I said to keep your eyes open but..."
"I know what Strole's up to."
If she had been in a calmer frame of mind she would have taken satisfaction from his nonplussed expression.
"Do you?"
"Yes. They're not just digging up old machinery from an abandoned alien city. Some of the aliens are still alive in there, but they won't tell him how any of it works and they can't defend themselves and he's torturing them. He killed one of them while I was watching."
The Doctor's face grew expressionless while he listened, and he turned slowly to drop down onto the bench next to her. He rested his head back against the wall.
"Charming," he muttered.
"We'll help them, won't we? I sort of promised."
This broke his mood. He couldn't stifle a huff of laughter.
"Did you? Well, I suppose we'd better help them, then." He stroked his chin for a moment in thought. "These aliens. Did they say what they were called?"
"Um, no. Sorry, I didn't think to ask."
"Mm. Well, what did they look like?"
"Well..." Jasmine paused for thought and looked away, picturing the hideous but gentle creatures in her mind's eye to make this as accurate as possible. "They were green. Sort of soft, shapeless, lumpy things about a foot and a half across. They couldn't move about, or pick anything up, they just had lots of little thin yellow tentacles that didn't seem to be useful for anything. And they only had one eye. A big, white, round one."
There was silence. When Jasmine looked round at the Doctor to prompt him for a response, she was taken aback by what she saw. He stared at her, his mouth gaping half open, the flesh of his face drained to a corpselike pallor. It took her a moment to realise that this was the face of a horrorstruck, frightened man.